BRCA 1/8th Circuit National Championship Rd8 – Report

Round 8 of this year’s BRCA 1/8th Circuit National Championship was hosted by the Mendip circuit in Weston Super Mare. With the championship already won by Serpent’s Marc Green with an almost perfect score, the race was on for the minor places. The competition up front would be close with the inclusion of Infinity factory driver Kyle Branson to the entry. Kyle would be racing the new car for the second time in preparations for the final ENS race. His car was also fitted with O.S. engines for the first time to allow him to gain valuable setup knowledge and drivability experience. On Saturday, the pace early on was quick but the track seemed to slow during the day with the lap times around 0.4 seconds slower than the best times of 15.2 seconds. The pace setters were Green and Branson. The Mendip track asphalt as become very abrasive over the years making it critical on tyre wear.

In Qualifying, it was Branson who had the upper hand all day with the chasing pack consisting of Green, Wood, and Andy Hastings. The gap between the top 2 was around 2 seconds in 5 minutes which gave no real advantage come the final.

Qualifying result:
1. Kyle Branson – Infinity/O.S. – 20 Laps 311s
2. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 20 Laps 313s
3. Andrew Hastings – Shepherd/O.S. – 19 laps 300s
4. Tim Wood – Serpent/O.S. – 19 Laps 302s
5. David Spashett – ARC/Picco – 19 Laps 304s
6. Richard Hicklin – Serpent/O.S. – 19 Laps 304s
7. Andrew North – ARC/Sirio – 19 Laps 308s
8. Neal King – Capricorn/Tesla – 19 Laps 308s
9. Sam Snell – Mugen/O.S. – 19 Laps 311s
10.Clive Connolly – Shepherd/Novarossi – 19 Laps 313s

In the electric class, it was Alex Thurston again setting the pace with his Serpent, with Gavin Clinch second closely followed by ARC teammate Frank Dambrine.

Qualifying result:
1. Alex Thurston – Serpent – 18 Laps 300s
2. Gavin Clinch – ARC – 18 Laps 315s
3. Frank Dambrine – ARC – 18 laps 316s

The A-final started in formation order with no accidents and up front it was Branson and Green steadily pulling out a lead over Tim Wood. The first major casualty was Connolly with a stripped gear and also Snell lost some time after a close fight with Spashett. Green then hit problems in the pits and hitting a pitman and flipping the car. This lost him a lot of time back to Kyle and although he tried to chase that down, the gap remained very much consistent to the finish. In third was Wood who had a 8 second lead over King who had Hastings and Spashett close behind on the same lap.

Final results:
1. Kyle Branson – Infinity/O.S. – 113 Laps
2. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 112 Laps
3. Tim Wood – Serpent/O.S. – 110 Laps
4. Neal King – Capricorn/O.S. – 109 Laps
5. Andrew Hastings – Shepherd/O.S. – 109 laps
6. David Spashett – ARC/Picco – 109 Laps
7. Richard Hicklin – Serpent/O.S. – 107 Laps
8. Andrew North – ARC/Sirio – 106 Laps
9. Sam Snell – Mugen/O.S. – 105 Laps
10.Clive Connolly – Shepherd/Novarossi – 52 Laps

The overall electric class top 3 saw Alex walking away with the win from Frank and Ian.

Final results:
1. Alex Thurston – 2 points
2. Frank Dambrine – 5 points
3. Ian Billett – 10 points

The final meeting of the year is at Wombwell in two weeks time where the final championship positions will be decided.

Thanks to Andy North for the report.